From the category archives:

Female Vocalists

Jo Stafford Sings Jambalaya

by John Micheal Rivera on September 25, 2009

Jo Stafford
Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917 – July 16, 2008) was an American singer of traditional pop music and jazz standards whose career ran from the late 1930s to the early 1960s. [read more…]

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Ann-Margret and Al Hirt – My Baby Just Cares for Me

October 9, 2008

In October of 1960 both Ann-Margret and Al Hirt were booked into the Dunes Hotel Lounge in Las Vegas, NV.  This engagement was before A-M had been formerly discovered by George Burns and well before Al recorded his signature sound at RCA Victor.

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Ella Fitzgerald – Get Ready

October 5, 2008

I just purchased a bulk lot of old jazz and r&b records and didn’t think twice when I saw that Ella Fitzgerald was one of the artists in the lot. The cover of the Reprise album “Ella” was very unassuming.  I did assume it was just a compilation of songs from previous recordings.  Until I [...]

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Brenda Lee – He’s Sure To Remember Me

May 3, 2008

Brenda Lee is like a dream come true. The dream that is still Brenda Lee was born on December 11, 1944. She was born in the charity wing of Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA. By the Way Grady Memorial Hospital is still there as part of the Emory University Hospital Complex. [...]

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Carmel Quinn – Danny Boy

April 26, 2008
Thumbnail image for Carmel Quinn – Danny Boy

I guess you could compare today’s “Star Search” or “American Idol” to the program “Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts”, except it was on the radio. It seems that many of the major stars of the 1950’s were discovered on that program.
The year 1955 was no different. Carmel Quinn (born in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish Entertainer [...]

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Peggy Lee, A Pop Standards Retrospective

April 24, 2008

Peggy Lee, singer, songwriter, actress, composer, Grammy winner and entertainer. That’s how she is remembered and also how her website http://www.peggylee.com/ headlines in her memory. What a headline and what a truth…
Beginning in 1941 Peggy ventured down from her home in North Dakota to join Benny Goodman’s band in Chicago. She was [...]

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Teresa Brewer – A Tear Fell

April 18, 2008

Teresa Brewer was born Theresa Breuer on May 7, 1931 in Toledo, Ohio and has been singing from the tender age of two when by her mother brought her to audition for a radio program, “Uncle August’s Kiddie Show” on Toledo’s WSPD. She toured with the “Major Bowes Amateur Hour” for seven years when she [...]

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Somewhere Over The Rainbow – Frank Sinatra & Judy Garland

April 16, 2008

I started this going forward as a rant about how Frank Sinatra sang “Over the Rainbow” THE WAY A MAN SHOULD SING IT. Then, I remembered how many other versions of this song there are.
So to compare each version would be impossible. Well, not literally impossible but, it would have taken more time than I [...]

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Patti Page – The Tennessee Waltz

April 15, 2008

Patti page is one of the grand divas of traditional pop standards. Not much more can be said of her that hasn’t already been said. That being said, let’s talk about her biggest hit ever “The Tennessee Waltz.”
The song was written by Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King in 1947, even though it was recorded [...]

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Lena Horne – It Ain’t Necessarily So

April 14, 2008

Born Helena Mary Calhoun Horne June 30, 1917 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, Lena Horne was raised mainly by her grandparents. Her father Edwin was in the gambling trade and left the family when she was three. Her mother Edna Scottron was the daughter of inventor Samuel Scottron, who invented among other [...]

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Barbara McNair – The Friendliest Thing

April 14, 2008

Barbara McNair was born in Chicago, IL on March 4, 1934, and studied music at the American Conservatory of Music also in Chicago. Barbara won her first big break on Arthur Godfrey’s “Talent Scouts” which began to open doors for her everywhere.
Entertainment wise she’s done it all. On Broadway she performed in “The Body Beautiful”, [...]

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Helen O’Connell – Green Eyes

April 11, 2008

Helen O’Connell began her presence in this world on May 23, 1920. In 1939 she joined the Jimmy Dorsey Band and began her career that would continue only 3 years, until she retired in 1943 to raise a family. When her marriage failed she reentered the game and embarked on a solo career in [...]

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Joni James – Autumn Leaves

April 10, 2008

Joni James was born September 22, 1930. After being discovered in a television commercial, in 1952 by MGM executives, James began to record on their label. Her first hit was “Why Don’t You Believe Me?” that record alone sold over a million copies.

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